


When It's Over

by ravenlowe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 8.23 sacrifice, Episode Tag, Gen, Spoilers, post episode, shortfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2013-05-17
Packaged: 2017-12-12 02:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenlowe/pseuds/ravenlowe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The angels fall, and there's nothing left to do but pack up their mostly-cured demon and head home to regroup.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It's Over

They take him back to the Batcave because they have nothing better to do with the Possibly No Longer King of Hell.

By the time either of them had the presence of mind to go back into the church and gather their things, Crowley's gone catatonic and is staring sightlessly at the cross that likely once hung over the alter but now rests sideways against the wall, covered in dirt and cobwebs. Nothing they do snaps him out of it, but they don't really try all that hard either.

Dean wants to kill the bastard and just be done with it, but Sam..Sam won't let him. Even with everything else that's going on around them, he can't seem to shake the image of Crowley breaking and brokenly asking how someone like him--someone like them--could ever find forgiveness. Because, yeah Sam still kind of thinks of himself as a monster sometimes and maybe, just maybe he saw a bit of himself in the creature chained in front of him, willingly baring his neck for the next dose.

He doesn't make a sound. Crowley passively lets himself be led to the car where he sits in the backseat with the cuffs still on his wrists and stares forward at what ends up being the back of Sam's head. The hunter is too tired to care and dozes off with his head against the window and his arms tucked close into his chest despite the crawling feeling he gets whenever someone's watching him.

After everything that's happened in the past eight hours it's nice to have a little silence for a while.

Sam doesn't know how much time passes, but he's awakened by Dean's cellphone ringing. It's Cas, human and sounding just as broken as the rest of them so they change directions to go bring him home too. Dean might be angry with the angel--former angel?--but he won't leave a man behind. Not tonight. Not with the echoes of a future in his head that he secretly prays to anyone who will listen that will never come to pass.

The car ride doesn't even change after that. They're all too shell-shocked or maybe just too worn down to do anything but sit in silence. Cas barely even pays Crowley a glance and Crowley doesn't react at all even though the two of them are pressed arm to arm. There's no lack of space in the backseat but the former angel is wide-eyed, trembling, and apparently wanting some sort of contact without really caring where he gets it. Even from a mostly-healed demon who hates him.

They ride all the way home that way. Well, Dean and Sam's home. It will become Castiel's and maybe even Crowley's but for now it's still Dean and Sam's. Sam and Dean's. Still somehow together and not dead, though Sam feels he really should be. Might even be soon with the weight of his unfinished trial slowly tearing him to shreds.

Dean has to support Sam as Cas leads the ever silent Crowley into the bunker. It's impossible to tell if Crowley's catatonia is a side effect of the unfinished ritual, or if the demon--man?--is just that shattered from the past day's events, but it's not their most pressing matter. No, their most pressing matter comes in the form of Kevin, still in the Batcave, loud and full of manic energy and desperately looking for answers.

Sam leaves Dean to it and instead leads Cas and their unresisting prisoner to the dungeon. It's the only place they can safely keep Crowley, even though part of Sam rebels against it. Even after they have him secured, Sam finds that he can't really bring himself to leave, so instead he slumps down in front of the chair and leans back against Crowley's knees. To his surprise Cas slides down next to him as close as he can without actually touching Sam.

They're still in the same position when Dean finds them later. Kevin isn't with him, but that doesn't mean the prophet is gone. Dean gives them both a look that means multitudes but doesn't actually say anything as he joins them. Somehow, it's fitting that the four of them as broken as they are would find each other in this moment. What remains of Team Free Will, together again, carrying on in this world of their creation. Looking for peace, and only finding it in each other.


End file.
